[miningmx.com] – WAS that a flash of teeth the Chamber of Mines (CoM) just bared today?
In upending the normal course of events by declaring a dispute with a union, instead of the other way round, it has signalled that if a presidential framework can’t commit AMCU to play by the rules, then the erstwhile CoM will seek legal means.
That would seem to be the meaning of a statement today in which the CoM will ask the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to arbitrate its attempts to take forward gold wage talks forward with AMCU.
There was barely contained frustration in the voice of Elize Strydom, chief negotiator for the CoM as she explained negotiations with AMCU to date. She described them as “professional’, but fruitless. “It became quite evident that we were going round in circles,’ she said.
According to Strydom, AMCU sought repeated clarifications, and then added two new demands essentially relating to technical issues around differing allowances given to underground and surface workers, but in the end wouldn’t take talks forward.
AMCU earlier declined to sign the framework agreement which was meant to set down a code governing how unions, employers and government should interact on matters relating to mines. The last thing the CoM wants is another on-mine protest, especially as emotions mount with the first anniversary of the Marikana disaster just over two weeks away.
What happens now is that the CCMA will draw AMCU into the self-same arbitration process as the one already entered into by the National Union of Mineworkers, UASA and Solidarity. It’s another way of getting AMCU to acknowledge it is part of a programme instead of being outside it, as it would prefer to be.
Being on the fringe means not committing to promises and inures one from failure. But it’s also a sterile strategy but one AMCU seems keen on retaining.
As Gideon du Plessis, deputy secretary-general of Solidarity remarks, the beauty of the CCMA arbitration is that there is a set of rules set down, within a regulated schedule, that all parties have to honour. Strydom says incorporating AMCU into that process can be done legally.
The first arbitration meeting is scheduled to begin on August 1. Let’s see if AMCU can manouevre itself out of this one, or whether the CoM can force the issue.
